Let There Be Yacht
When the rest of the music world is pivoting to Country, where does a Country Star have to go?
The answer it seems is to dive into the gentle rolling waves of easy listening 70s and 80s. flow state (yes, the lowercase is on purpose. And yes, it’s indicative of how chill this whole endeavour is) is Keith Urban’s 13th album, and if you haven’t heard yet, the Country Superstar has gone full Yacht Rock.
What is Yacht Rock? According to Keith it’s “music created as an antidote to stress, built to uplift.” Yacht Rock is smooth. Keith Urban’s voice is smooth. And honestly, flow state couldn’t be any smoother if it was sponsored by WD40.
More technically, Yacht Rock is a surprisingly hard to pin down style of jazzy soft rock from the 1970s and 1980s. It’s a more of a vibe thing. When you hear it, you know it. For example…
Urban hears it, and respects it enough to not fix what isn’t broken. These covers are straight up. There are no artistic recreations that barely resemble the original versions, these are faithful and thoughtful. The biggest departure you’ll get is an extended outro on ‘Summer Breeze’, with help from John Mayer. But who can blame a man for wanting to stay in that smooth groove for as long as possible.
It’s a tall task taking on iconic songs, and Urban comes across as a genuine fan who can more than hold his own talent. He’s not putting on an act here – that Australian twang and American country drawl still sneak in there a few times (you can take the country boy to the ocean, but you can’t get him to not put some stank on “steal your money and break your heart” while singing Stephen Bishop’s ‘On And On’).
He’s made a good selection of all-time classics and under the radar bangers that will stir a warm wash of nostalgia for many listeners. How long has it been since you even thought of Walter Egan’s ‘Magnet & Steel’? Well get ready for it to be stuck in your head for the next couple of weeks – thanks to an able assist from Little Big Town.
And then there are the all-timers. It takes a confident man to tackle such iconic songs as ‘Just The Two Of Us’, ‘Summer Breeze’, and (in my honest opinion, one the best songs ever written) ‘Help Is On The Way’.
Urban isn’t replacing Washington & Withers, Seals & Croft, or The Little River Band anytime soon – but it’s a testament to how good these songs are that they sound as brilliant, undeniable, and refreshing in 2026 as they did when they were first recorded.
flow state isn’t wall to wall covers. Urban has stepped up to the plate to write a brand new Yacht Rock tune, ‘We Go Back’. And in an incredibly savvy decision he brought along easy listening GOAT Michael McDonald to help him out.
‘We Go Back’ is a country song lyrically, but it finds a groove with a jazzy guitar riff and bouncy bass line that places both its feet in Yacht Rock camp, even before McDonald’s voice breezes in. It probably won’t join the Greatest Yacht Rock Songs Of All Time list, but it’s lovely to have a new jam to enjoy on the water in 2026.
So why make a Yacht Rock covers album now? Because Urban thinks the world needs a breather.
“I think the reason it hits now is for the exact same reason it did back then, which is — there’s just so much divisiveness,” Urban recently told AP Press. There’s beauty in the simplicity of Yacht Rock: “One theme, one feeling, one emotion that just lets us all exhale for a minute — and look up and see a blue sky — just for three minutes and 30 seconds, is so needed.”
It’s safe to say Keith Urban will return to his Country roots, this doesn’t feel like an attempt at a full time pivot (Chris Gaines this is not). Urban is mid-life, mid-career, and has had a tumultuous time personally recently, so it’s completely understandable if he wants to dive into the cool, soothing waters of Yacht Rock for a little bit. Bless him for finding his flow state in the groove of this music.
That’s the beauty of these songs – they make life easy, even just for a few minutes at a time.
